


Pure

by Graymuse42



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alpha Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells, Alpha Leonard Snart, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cisco Ramon Whump, Creepy Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Muteness, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Cisco Ramon, Possessive Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells, Protective Leonard Snart, Suicide Attempt, Survivor Guilt, Temporary Muteness, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:22:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21854449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Graymuse42/pseuds/Graymuse42
Summary: “Pure Omegas on the other hand are some of the most compassionate people you will ever have the good fortune of meeting. They’re charismatic and charming, and very easy to forgive. Their power is to heal. Now, while most Omegas are known to have small healing properties, Pure Omegas are capable of healing small to moderate wounds. This is very draining for them, and can only be done in extreme situations.”“Yeah, the 'you'd better be dying' type of extreme,” Cisco muttered under his breath.
Relationships: Cisco Ramon/Harrison Wells | Eobard Thawne, Cisco Ramon/Leonard Snart
Comments: 14
Kudos: 64





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The Rape/non-con tag is on there because of places this fic goes, if I feel like it doesn't need that tag on there I'll remove it later, but please, read carefully. If you're familiar with my works then you probably know I go dark places, but there's always a recovery.

There were three main types. Alphas, the strong ones, Betas, the smart ones, and Omegas, the empathetic ones.

Now, that doesn’t mean that an Omega couldn’t be strong, Or that an Alpha couldn’t be smart. It meant that it wouldn’t come as naturally to them.

It had often been theorized that Alphas gave birth to Alphas, Betas to Betas, and Omegas to Omegas.

This had been disproven not a hundred years previously, as geneticists realized that there was absolutely nothing in your DNA that said one way or the other. It was all personality, and representation. This didn’t stop people from still living by this mindset though.

Another popular mindset was that Omegas weren’t actually useful for anything.

Alphas were the brawn, and Betas were the brain. So what were Omegas?

Cisco snorted at this point in the lecture, but passed it off as a cough and reached for water. This earned him a glare from the professor, but nothing else.

“So, what are Omegas? Well, they’re the rarest. Less than 10% of the population is Omega dominant, less than 1% of that male. The Omega portion of the brain is the portion responsible for caring about people. The emotions and feelings that reside in them make them excellent ‘mother hens’. They’re responsible for keeping their families together.

“Now, I’m sure you’re familiar with the dominant and secondary portions of the brain. Your dominant personality is what you act on the most, whereas your secondary portion is responsible for that afterthought. For example: A Beta with a secondary of Alpha is going to be more inclined to a field dominated with research, but able to put up a fight if someone tries to undermine them. Whereas an Alpha with a secondary of Beta is going to be in some form of construction or battlefield, where they can use their strength but also their mind.

“It is possible for people with mental health issues to display unusual behavior in some cases. For example, someone with a split personality might display Beta behavior in one personality, but Alpha behavior in another. Such cases are referred to as Split Dynamics.”

A hand shot up from one of Cisco’s classmates and internally he groaned. Here we go again. There was always at least one person in any class on dynamics that asked the question:

“What about Pures?”

The teacher sighed, obviously just as put out by the question as Cisco himself. “Pures are just that. Their minds are purely focused on one dynamic. They’re the rarest of rare cases. It’s theorized that less than a million Pures exist throughout the world. The governments have long been trying to pass a bill that requires Pures to register with the state, but so far only a handful of countries have managed to get it passed.

“Pures have certain abilities, more than the other types. Pure Betas have photographic memory, down to reading a paper in their mind that they glanced at for a couple seconds. Most are through college before their peers have begun high school, and are making advancements in technology that we never imagined possible.

“Pure Alphas are strong by nature. While Alphas command attention and are more inclined to build muscle, a Pure Alpha’s body will be inclined to produce muscles throughout their life. For this reason many Pure Alphas are forbidden from entering many sports competitions. Pure Alphas are also much more violent, as they don’t have a secondary voice in their head such as reason or compassion.

“Pure Omegas on the other hand are some of the most compassionate people you will ever have the good fortune of meeting. They’re charismatic and charming, and very easy to forgive. Their power is to heal. Now, while most Omegas are known to have small healing properties, Omegas are capable of healing small to moderate wounds. This is very draining for them, and can only be done in extreme situations.”

“Yeah, the _you’d better be dying_ type of extreme,” Cisco muttered under his breath.

“Now, are there any other questions? Then class is dismissed.”

Cisco shouldered his backpack and headed out the door, ignoring the group of girls who were already guessing at what their classmates’ dynamics were.

“What about that geeky kid in the t-shirts? What do you think, Beta dominant?”

He snorted, slipping through the doorway. Please. He was not getting good enough grades to be a Beta. Still, that meant the suppressants were working. He’d spent his life avoiding being labeled by the dynamics, and he would continue to avoid it for as long as he could.

The suppressants were a secret he kept. It didn’t stop people standing near him from noticing that he was an Omega, but it helped with other aspects.

And there wasn’t much else to be done for it. It wasn’t like people wanted Omegas to hide what they were. Not a lot of people were arguing for Omega rights. Sure, there were things that should never be done to Omegas specifically, but the punishment wasn’t nearly what it should be.

Ten years later and he was still putting up with this stuff. Cisco scowled at Hartley as Barry dragged him in. “Looks like the gang’s all here.”

Hartley glared around the room, smirking as he assessed his crowd. “Cisco. You lasted a lot longer than I originally thought. I wonder why you’re still keeping secrets then?” Cisco bristled, getting ready to punch Hartley, but he’d already moved on to pointed jibes at Caitlin.

“Alright, move it. Stay in front of me.” He shoved Hartley ahead, refusing to let him talk to Caitlin again.

“Really? Why are you still keeping secrets Cisco? Don’t you trust your new friends?”

“I don’t trust you and yet you know,” Cisco muttered, pushing Hartley along and glancing back to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“Ah, but I’m an Omega too. If I couldn’t notice one of my own, even on suppressants, then what type of Omega would I be?”

“A bitchy one. Shut up would you?”

Hartley wouldn’t let it go. “You’re going to have to tell them eventually. What, are you scared they won’t like you when they find out?”

“For the record, they know I’m an Omega.”

“Ah, but do they know that’s all you are?” Cisco froze for a second as Hartley turned to stare at him. “Come on, you identified as Omega years ago and yet you’re still on suppressants?” Cisco never realized that Hartley really knew. “You didn’t think that everyone working here was that dumb, did you?”

Cisco spun Hartley around again, pushing him towards the pipeline. “Maybe everyone else just knows how to respect personal space.”

Noise. He was certain there were words in there somewhere, but all he could hear for the moment was ringing and noise.

Next thing he knew Rory was being pulled off of him, and Cisco groaned as he tried to roll over and get his feet under him. His hair hadn’t cushioned the blow when his head first hit the floor, and he blinked a few times before he could see again.

Cisco jerked back against the wall as Heatwave stood over him, glaring down. Heatwave was a pure Alpha. It wasn’t as if Cisco hadn’t known, but this close to him he could feel the anger radiating off of him. Cisco kept his mouth shut, making himself as small as possible to avoid making the Alpha angrier. Cold he could reason with. Cold was a Beta Secondary, even if his dominant was Alpha. Cold had a brain. But Heatwave? Heatwave would burn him the first chance he got.

“Mick, we need him.”

Heatwave snorted, but backed up.

Cisco glanced between Cold and Heatwave, unsure of what he was expected to do now. He’d already made the guns, what more could they expect from him? Unless they knew, No, no they couldn’t know. He’d been on suppressants for years now; they’d never once gone out.

Heatwave moved to the side of the room, keeping an eye on the brothers.

Cold stood above Dante, gun in hand. “Really, Dante? You’ve already seen what we can do. What did you think would happen if you tried to attack us?”

The gun went off and Cisco lunged for Dante, only for Heatwave to grab his wrist in one hand and drag him away from his brother. “No, let me go!” He shrieked, “Let me go, let me help him!”

Cisco’s wrist was frail in Heatwave’s grip, and he swore he could feel the bones shift uncomfortably together. “You’re staying put,” Heatwave muttered, shoving Cisco into a chair and grabbing his wrists, bringing them together behind the chair and tying them there. “Damn kid, you’ve got to put on some weight. The ropes are almost bigger than your wrists.”

He shivered, trying to stay calm. Trying to keep himself calm, but his brother was right there and he needed to help.

Cold stood in front of him now, glaring down at the young Omega. “You seem like a good brother. How about I make you a deal?”

Cisco glared up at him, but stayed silent. He was listening.

“One question, and your brother walks. I’ll have Mick escort him to the hospital and everything. Just one question, and I’ll even let you say goodbye.”

Cisco stared up at him. He wasn’t going to think about what Cold planned to do with him. Probably sell him. Even worse if Cold found out what he was. “What’s the question?”

”The Flash. Who is he?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An explanation of connections

They were changing houses, now that Cold was back from dropping Dante at the hospital. Cisco winced as he was hauled out of the chair, stumbling after Mick who was dragging him out. Cisco wanted to do something to let Barry know where he was being taken this time, knowing that Dante would lead them back here, but Cisco himself didn’t know where he was being taken, and he didn’t have any time. Mick yanked on his wrists as he tripped, head spinning as he tried to keep up. Something was going wrong in his head, he could feel it. Maybe it was the beating he’d received earlier from Mick, but his head wouldn’t stop spinning, the edges of the room moving slower than his head.

They were in a garage now, Cisco could see the car they were taking, before his vision blurred even further and he collapsed onto the concrete.

There was a word for it, Cisco was sure. What he was feeling had a word…empty? No, that wasn’t quite it. Hollow? Not quite enough. That wasn’t as…all-encompassing. Soullessness. That was it. He felt soulless. A whole-body shaking that wouldn’t go away. His eyes couldn’t focus on anything, and though he wasn’t cold his shoulders knit together and his muscles clenched until he was a tense bundle of nerves. Now that his brother was gone, he didn’t have anyone to distract him from the fact that he was surrounded by two Alphas, who each wanted his best friend dead.

It also didn’t distract himself from the fact that he’d waken up shaking in a room he hadn’t seen before, and the shaking hadn’t gone down any more than the room had become familiar. There was… a bed, with far more blankets than was strictly necessary, and soft chair in the center of the room. Cisco recognized the design of the room. It was the standard layout of safe-rooms for Omegas who had gone into shock.

Cisco reached for one of the blankets, curling his hands tightly around it as he tried to stop the shaking. This is what happened any time he went without connecting. Which was strange, because he’d connected just a few days ago, with Doctor Wells. The effects shouldn’t have kicked for weeks, and nothing to this extreme.

He struggled to stand up, clutching at the wall as he did, fingers shaking as he raised himself up. He managed to take two steps towards the door before collapsing with a heavy thud into the carpet.

He just sighed and let himself drift off into the soft carpet, content to be a motionless sack until the door opened and Lisa was there, helping him to his feet.

He tried to focus on her, but his vision was fading quickly. Maybe it was the beating he’d received from Rory? Maybe he was having difficulty healing after it. Maybe they’d believe that.

“Cisco, come on, let’s get you back in bed, okay?”

She was being sweet, as always. Gentle. She had a nice voice. Cisco could barely make it the two steps back to bed with Lisa’s help, collapsing onto the comforter as Lisa piled blankets on top of him.

“Sweetie, why did you go so long without connecting? This isn’t natural.”

Cisco wanted to laugh, but he didn’t have the energy. More so than she knew. Even a pure such as himself shouldn’t have such difficulties with energy so quickly after a connection. They shouldn’t have these difficulties until months after not having connected. He’d been connecting regularly. Doctor Wells had been more than happy to help, and Caitlin too had been willing, though honestly he preferred to take energy from Doctor Wells. Caitlin was always…sad, these days. The energy he got from her usually gave him feelings of guilt.

The last time he’d connected with anyone other than Doctor Wells would have been…December? When he connected with Barry to try and understand what was happening in his head.

All of this was a mute point however, because he’d connected recently. Oh, look…blankets. Blankets are good. And soft. Fluffy. Fluffy and soft, and blankets were warm too. Really warm. He relaxed into the warm, fluffy softness of the blankets and drifted off to sleep, without even bothering to answer Lisa’s question.

Flickers of blue and black surrounded him as he stood in the bunker, trying to understand what he was seeing. The Reverse Flash stood before him, an intimidating Alpha even without the knowledge of what he had done. And…Wells was behind him? What was happening?

“Some would say I’m the reverse.”

The voice echoed through his head as he felt his heart shatter by the hand of his mentor, his guide, his friend. His father.

Cisco gulped in air as he woke up, clutching at the sheets as he toppled over the edge of the bed. The gulps of air quickly turned to a rattling cough which shook his entire frame as he fought his body for air.

Hands gripped his shoulders, trying to hold him still through the coughing fit. He barely heard words shouting at him, something about breathing. Suddenly, his coughing stopped, and he shuddered, breathing deeply again. He glared at Snart, who had just spoken.

Alpha voice.

Alphas had the ability to control an Omega’s body by commanding it. Of course, the Omega could try to fight it if they wanted, but their instincts would try to get them to comply. It had come in handy in this moment, yes. But Cisco wasn’t about to give Snart the satisfaction of knowing that.

“Just keep breathing, it’s going to be alright,” he continued in a normal tone. Lisa was hovering over Len’s shoulder, ready to step in if necessary.

“Why did you do that?” Cisco rasped out.

“Cisco… look at your hands.” Cisco looked down and paled at the sight of blood on his hands. His own blood. He’d been coughing up blood. And not just a little, his hands were almost drenched.

He tried to stand up but Snart held him back, gently lowering him back onto the bed.

“Dammit kid, when was the last time you connected?!” Snart’s voice was equal parts irritated and concerned. No, wait…scared.

“This, this doesn’t make sense…” Cisco muttered to himself. “I…I connected less than a week ago. I connected three days ago…I shouldn’t be showing signs of deterioration so fast…”

Snart bit out a laugh. “Who did you connect with?”

“Doctor Wells…” Cisco muttered to himself.

Lisa sat down on the edge of the bed. “With a person like that, no wonder it didn’t take.”

Snart frowned. “Lise, just because he’s got a bad reputation doesn’t mean it wouldn’t take. Besides, a reaction this strong would mean almost an entire year without connection.”

Cisco was looking between the two of them now. “What do you mean it didn’t take?”

Snart focused his attention on Cisco. “Should there have been a level of distrust with the person you connected with, it would have backfired. And if trust gets broken, then all previous connections would become negative energy. You would have to connect to someone else, immediately, or you would go…depending on the level of connection previously shared, somewhere between sleep-deprived all the way to catatonic.”

Cisco thought back to the dream. Something must have happened. He’d clearly connected, so it must not have taken. Meaning something had happened to destroy the trust…except nothing had.

“Cisco? Did something happen with that last connection?”

Cisco shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Snart moved to the other side of the bed, sitting down. “Cisco, how many connections have you had with him?” Cisco shrugged. “So a lot.” A nod. “how many other connections have you had?”

Cisco thought about it. “Since the particle accelerator exploded, people haven’t exactly been willing to connect with an Omega like me. Honestly, ever since then, I’ve probably only ever connected with Caitlin or-”

He cut that thought off before it could continue. A reminder of how he had betrayed Barry was the last thing he needed.

“So the only person you’ve really connected with over the last…year, has been Doctor Harrison Wells?” Snart asked pointedly.

Cisco growled as best he could. “Is there a problem with an Omega being careful who he connects with?!”

“Kid, I’m not here to make a judgment call, I’m trying to keep you alive!”

Cisco froze at that. “A-alive?”

Lisa was just staring at him, so Len continued. “If something did disrupt the connection, that would be about a year with, I’m going to guess and say: less than 5 connections from an outside source. Meaning your system would only have accepted 5 connections in the last year. You’re not depleted, you’re starved.”

The kid in front of him was pale at that. “I connected with Caitlin once last March… and Barry back in December.”

Len was silent as he processed that. “Lise, get out.” He said.

Lisa stood up, casting one last glance around the room before she left.

“Kid…” Len began, unsure of what to say. “You could die. I know you don’t believe something happened, but this-”

“Maybe it did.”

Len stopped. “What?”

“I started…having dreams. Yesterday, mostly, and then a few minutes ago…something happened.” The kid was clearly struggling to put his words together, and he looked like death. Every few words he had to pause to take a breath. “I…I saw him kill me. In my dream. I’m not sure what that means, but something must have happened.”

Len thought for a moment, then held out his hand, palm up. Cisco just stared at him, so Len sighed, rolling his eyes. “I’m offering a connection. I’m not about to betray you, we’ve already gone past that. There’s no trust TO break, so it should help you.”

Cisco shook his head, curling further in on himself. “I’m not connecting with you.”

“Then I can go get Mick. You NEED to connect. You look like death. A few more days and you could be having conversations with him.”

Cisco shook his-well it was hard to tell, the kid was shaking all over, but it looked like he was trying to shake his head. “I’m n-not connecting wi-with you. Or Mick,” he grit out through chattering teeth.

Leonard sighed. “Listen, I know the options aren’t great, but you have to connect to an Alpha or you’ll die. I don’t think you want me going out there and kidnapping one off the street for you, and you can’t be moved! You’re too weak for anything.”

Cisco tried to argue, moving to stand up, but he shuddered suddenly, pitching forward towards the floor. Snart just barely managed to catch him in time before he face planted.

“Cisco, you need to connect!”

Cisco shook his head. “Lisa…I can connect with Lisa.”

Len didn’t argue, he just lifted Cisco and carried him back to the bed, leaving the room to get Lisa.

“Okay, talk me through this, and start with the basics because you know I’m not good on these things.” Lisa herself was a beta dominant, so she’d never really had to deal with connections.

“Omegas require connections, or they start to deteriorate and go catatonic.”

“Not that basic, Lenny, I paid attention in school. I mean how do I connect? What am I doing? There’s usually not a call for a beta to connect.”

They were talking in the kitchen, trying to summarize this as quickly as they could, so Lisa could help Cisco.

“Simply put, you make physical contact and _will_ your strength to pass to him. It’s going to be a little harder for you, but he should be able to talk you through it.”

“So it’s a severe case of touch starvation?”

“A severe case that could kill him. And there’s more to it than just touching, but it’s more just a sense than something that can be explained.”

“And why can’t you connect with him Lenny? Alphas always understand these things better. I need to be able to articulate it to understand it, you know this.”

Len just shook his head. “I think he’s scared to connect to an Alpha. It’s not common, but there are some Omegas who refuse to connect with Alphas. Usually the result of a past trauma.”

Lisa nodded. “I’m guessing you’re going to be researching what type of trauma he might have gone through?”

“Just go take care of him. He’s no use to anyone dead.”

“Sure, just pretend you don’t care. I can see past that you know.”

Len pushed her gently towards Cisco’s room, not bothering with a response. She wouldn’t believe it anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this all made sense! It's been in my head so long I feel like I already know everything about it, so please tell me if anything doesn't make sense!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....I'm back?! What?!   
> I genuinely don't know why, but the muses are talking again, so have some more angst! :)

It wasn’t as if he had a death wish. Quite the opposite. He had a strong desire to keep living. He just had reason to believe that his best life would be lead somewhere far away from here.

So, steeling his nerves, he made another attempt to stand up. Once he was past the initial wave of nausea, he found that he actually was feeling significantly better. At least that’s what he told himself.

He managed to make it to the chair before he toppled, clenching his fists in the carpet before climbing into the chair to sit.

The shaking was beginning to consume him now, but he kept breathing through it, refusing to break down into another coughing fit.

Of course, this is when Lisa walked in. She seemed hesitant, but gently took his hand in hers.

“So,” she began, “I’m not entirely sure how to do this. Lenny just said ‘think strength’, but I think it comes easier to him.”

Cisco tried to smile, but he was too tired. Something had to have gone horribly wrong with his connection cycle. Lisa nodded, squeezing his hand, then Cisco felt the connection come alive. It was like a gentle river coursing through his veins, giving him energy to replace the exhaustion. The energy glided through him, searching out the pain from Mick’s attack and rubbing it away.

Unfortunately, the disadvantage to connecting with a beta was that it couldn’t last long. Betas weren’t known for their strength.

Lisa had to let go of Cisco’s hand, breathing a little heavier than normal.

“Sorry, that’s all I can do.”

Cisco shook his head. “It’s fine. I guess there’s a lot of fixing to do here. “

Lisa shook her head. “I should be able to do more. To help you more.”

“Lisa, it’s fine. Really.” Cisco sat up fully, starting to get to his feet. “I’m not even dizzy, see?” He stood up fully, but tripped when he tried to take a step. Lisa caught him and Cisco laughed. “Alright, so maybe I’m still a bit dizzy.” Cisco smiled a bit dopey-eyed as Lisa helped him get back into bed.

“Alright. I’m going to go downstairs and get some soup, and you need _to not leave this bed_. Understood?”

Cisco just grinned up at her. “You’re not an Alpha. You don’t have Alpha voice.”

Lisa snorted. “Yeah, well, try any of that again and I will get Mick or Lenny to Alpha-voice your cute ass back into bed. You need rest.”

Cisco was drifting off, but he muttered a dreary “yes ma-am,” before he dozed off completely. Lisa smiled as she closed the door behind her. Maybe he’d be alright after all.

Len knew. Len also knew that if Cisco knew he knew, the kid wouldn’t accept a connection from any of them. Which would kill the kid. So he had to be quiet and let his Beta sister connect with him, despite the fact that it would take…at least 10 connections before he’d be recovered. And that was the loose use of the word.

“He’s too weak.” Len looked up to see Lisa leaning against the counter. He knew it was for support, so he grabbed the chair and pulled it out for her. She gratefully slumped down into it, resting her head in her hands. “I held the connection up as long as I could, but I’m not strong enough. He was able to sit up a bit, and he’s not looking like death’s cousin, but he’s still really weak.”

Len nodded. “Beta’s aren’t as strong. If all he’s been doing is connecting with Betas for the last year…it could be hard to convince him to let me connect with him.”

“You’re going to try?”

“We have to find a way to get him back. I said when this was over, I’d release him. I can’t keep my word if he’s too weak to be moved.”

Lisa smiled. “You’re finding him adorable aren’t you.”

“Lise, he’s an Omega. It’s my natural instinct, especially as an Alpha, to protect him. I’m trying to protect him from himself!”

“And from that Doctor Wells person.”

Len nodded silently. “There could be something going on there. I won’t know for sure for a little while yet, but this could be bad. What I can’t figure out is how a connection wouldn’t take when the person connecting still trusts the person they connected with. I should ask Mick.”

Lisa looked up. “What would Mick know about this?”

Len shrugged. “It might have something to do with him being a pure.”

Her eyes widened. “He’s a pure?!”

Leonard nodded. “Which is why we have to be so careful. Mick’s outburst last night was…poorly thought out. You know how he views Omegas.”

“It’s not the worst people could think of them.”

Leonard knew she was right. Some people decided that Omegas were useless, and should be treated as a second class citizen because they didn’t have a defined role in society other than to help other people. The ones who held this view were typically emotionally-ignorant. Mick was one of the rare few who thought that Omegas didn’t do anything special, so they should be treated like everyone else. Mick was one who didn’t care about the personalities. This was incredibly confusing given his own status as a Pure Alpha.

Len was about to go find Mick, when a scream cut through his thoughts. He looked up at Lisa, who stared back for only a moment before they both ran upstairs towards the Omega. The scream had died out, but the kid was tossing and turning on the bed, the words coming out of his mouth froze them both.

“You were there… why?...Thawne…I could help you…Please…don’t kill me…”

Len had heard enough, reaching out to grip the kid’s shoulder’s gently. “Kid, wake up.” Cisco remained asleep, mind clouded with whatever nightmare he was replaying. “Kid, you need to wake up, it’s not real.” Len shook him lightly, trying to wake him up. He growled. “Kid, Wake Up.”

The Omega’s eyes shot open at the Alpha command, and Len was quick to grab his wrists, demonstrating his breath for the Omega to follow. After a minute or two the kid was able to sit up and Len placed his hand on the kid’s back. “You’re alright. You’re safe. No one can get to you here.”

Lisa looked between Len and Cisco. “I’m going to go make hot chocolate, why don’t you two keep working on…that.”

Len nodded to her as she left the room. Betas usually didn’t fully understand what happened with Omegas.

“Kid, do you want to talk about that?” Cisco shook his head, still trying to breathe, and Len ignored the shuddering as tears leaked down his face to land on the sheets. “Alright. But don’t try to convince me Wells didn’t do something. Whatever you’re going through, he’s behind it somehow.”

Cisco nodded, then shook his head. “He…he couldn’t have. This can’t be real. I have to be seeing this wrong. It’s just a stupid dream, planting a stupid idea in my head.”

Len froze. “This was the same dream?” Cisco nodded “Kid…” he took a moment to think his next words over. “It’s going to be alright. Lisa can come back in to connect in a few minutes, and tomorrow we’ll be able to look into this more. Right now, just work on recovering.”

Cisco nodded, and when Lisa brought the hot chocolate in he was able to drink a good half of it before he drifted off again.

Something was horribly wrong. And it was time for Len to see what could be done about it.

Thawne was furious at the thought of his Omega being in the hands of two Alphas. Especially those two. “Gideon, show me the future.”

“Certainly, Dr. Wells.” The timeline remained intact. He frowned. So whatever happened, it didn’t change the future. Good.

Now what to do about Cisco? He couldn’t leave him in the hands of the Alphas, that was absurd. But in order for him to save the Omega, he would have to reveal himself. He wasn’t ready to do that just yet. Something had to be done. He needed to get Cisco out of the control of the Alphas, without having it come back to Barry.

A thought struck Thawne then. A horrible, terrible thought. And something inside him loved it.

Barry was pacing. Dante had turned up at the hospital the day before, but when he woke up he didn’t have any idea where he’d been, or where Cisco was. Meaning they had nothing. Again. And that Cisco was still in Snart’s hands, which meant Cold could do anything he wanted. Barry wasn’t going to do anything to risk Cisco’s health, and Cold knew it.

Barry halted his pacing to look at his phone as he received a text from an unknown number.

Saints and Sinners, 5 minutes. Alone, Flash.

C.C.

Barry bristled. Snart wanted to meet up? He had to remind himself that if Snart was offering to meet, that meant he might be offering a trade of some kind. Barry didn’t care what Snart wanted, he just had to know that Cisco was alright.

For once Barry actually arrived on time, walking through the doors of a dingy bar to see Cold leaning up against a pool table, no parka or cold-gun in sight. Barry still didn’t trust that Cold was alone though.

“Cisco told you who I was?”

Cold turned to look at him, and smirked. “Hello Barry.”

Barry contained his rage enough to not punch Snart before speaking. “He’s an Omega, you can’t keep him prisoner like this.”

Snart snorted. “And it would be alright if it was a Beta or another Alpha?”

Barry shook his head. “That’s not what I-this could kill him. You understand that, right? Do you even care about what it could do to your psyche?”

Snart rolled his eyes. “I couldn’t care less about my psyche. It’s taken harder blows than this. But in response to this killing the kid, that’s actually why I’m here.”

Barry stared at him. “What happened? I swear, Snart, if you’ve done anything to hurt him-”

“Relax, kid.” Snart drawled, raising a hand in placation. “This was going wrong long before I got involved. But it’s not good.”

Barry’s anger melted and all he was left with was pure fear for Cisco. “Is he alright?”

Snart nodded. “For the moment. Somehow he’s ended up with a fractured connection though. You know that couldn’t have anything to do with me.”

Barry nodded. “I, how long?”

Snart shrugged. “Seems the last person he connected with outside the currently fractured connection was you.”

Barry paled. “But that was in December, it’s the end of March. How is he surviving on such little energy?”

Snart stared at him. “You’re the only other connection he’s had for the last year. Since the other connections have fractured, his energy level is that of someone who’s connected once in the past year.”

Barry shook. “No….no, but then he’d be comatose?”

“So my question is why isn’t he?”

Barry stared at Snart. “What makes you think I would know that?”

“You’re his friend, aren’t you?”

“That doesn’t mean I’d understand why his system didn’t respond to it the way it should have! This doesn’t make any sense unless-” Everything suddenly clicked into place. Everything from before, when he’d been taken that first time and his mental stability without connections when those psychopaths had kidnapped him and he’d escaped on his own. Cisco’s strange avoidance of Alphas, which had been why Barry had been called in to take care of him when he’d been starved of connection. All of it, it all clicked into place in an instant. But there was no way he was telling Snart.

“Unless what, kid?”

Barry shook his head. “It-it was nothing.”

“Unless he’s a Pure?”

Barry paled. “How do you know that?”

Snart rolled his eyes. “I’m an Alpha. Maybe it’s not that obvious to a beta like yourself, but I can smell it on him. Alphas who’ve never met one, they wouldn’t know. But Mick’s a Pure. I can pick up on things like that.”

Barry shook his head. “Then why were you asking? It makes perfect sense for him to not be comatose knowing he’s a Pure.”

Snart nodded. “I was wondering if you knew. Wondering who he’s told. Apparently you aren’t that close to him after all.”

Barry shook his head. “But, that’s the thing that doesn’t make sense. We’ve been close since we met. Cisco doesn’t have any other friends. He hates his family, and he jumped into work at Star Labs as soon as he graduated. Snart, if he’s that depleted, you have to let me see him. If his system’s registering a depletion of connections that severe, it doesn’t matter if he is a Pure, he’s got to be in Hell.”

Snart shook his head. “Lisa’s a beta, and he’s agreed to let her connect with him. I can’t let you see him kid, sorry.”

Barry’s anger started boiling up again. “Why not? He’s a Pure Omega who’s basically starving for safety. You have to let me help! I’ll do whatever you damn well ask of me, but you have to let me see him!”

Cold shook his head. “This isn’t about any of that. You want him safe? Then you have to stay away from him. This meeting itself is risky. The problem is that his connections broke, and he doesn’t know why. While you seem trustworthy enough with your hero complex, you could be followed. He needs to be protected from whoever the connection broke with.”

Barry suddenly understood. “You think someone close to him betrayed him, and his senses as a Pure picked up on it?”

Snart nodded, and Barry shuddered.

“You…what if they did? Who should I trust? In what way could someone close to us-”It suddenly dawned on Barry. “the reverse Flash.” Snart crossed his arms.

“This sounds like a discussion we should take to the back.”

Len was used to using Saints and Sinners as a place to plan heists and such. He knew the owners, and as such knew that they didn’t bug the back room. Whatever Barry had to say, he could say it here.

“So who’s this Reverse Flash? And why would it be impacting Cisco?”

Barry shook his head. “You know who I am, so you know about my history?”

Snart nodded. He’d done his research after all. Barry’s mother had been killed and his father had gone to jail for it. The kid had protested it wasn’t his father who had done it.

“I was there that night. I saw it. My father didn’t kill my mother, a man in yellow lightning did.”

Snart frowned. “Your lightning.”

Barry nodded. “It’s another speedster. He came back at Christmas. I still don’t know why he killed my mom.”

“Is that around the time you connected with Cisco?”

Barry frowned. “He told you about that?”

Snart stared at him. “The kid passed out in my arms, and when he finally woke up he was too disoriented to stand. Yes, he told me about your connection.”

Barry nodded. “So who has Cisco been connecting with? And why has it broken?”

Shaking his head, Snart began writing something down as he continued. “I can’t tell you that, you’re one of the worst actors I’ve ever met. I swear, if you pretended to be a criminal, someone would end up shot. You’re just going to have to trust that I won’t put the kid in danger.”

Snart slid the paper across the table to Barry, who frowned. “What is this?”

“My number. My real one, not a burner phone. Don’t tell anyone about our meeting. Do some investigating on your own, and I’ll do the same. I’m trusting that you’ll do what’s best for your friend.”

Barry glared, but picked up the paper. “If you hurt him, I will find you, and I will put you away. For good.”

He left then, leaving the threat hanging in the air, before he could hear Snart whisper a quiet “You’d better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the current state of things this work has been particularly hard to write, but I swear I'm still working on it. It's just harder to focus on than some of my other works. But I'm still here, and I'm still forging ahead! Thank you so much for reading! Stay safe!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go very wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I've been gone so long! I swear I have more coming soon, it just took me forever to get this part written! It does get very dark from here on, I'm sorry, please let me know if there's any tags I should add! Thank you all for your patience!

By the time Len got back, Lisa had managed to connect with Cisco again, and he was sitting up. He still flinched when Len walked through the door though. He figured he’d earned that one, what with kidnapping him.

“You’re looking…better.” Because barely stopping himself from leaning against the wall, shaking like a leaf and holding onto a bloodied tissue could hardly be considered ‘good’.

“Why are you doing this?” At Len’s questioning gaze, Cisco elaborated. “Why are you helping me? Having Lisa connect with me?”

Leonard just shrugged, brushing off Cisco’s stare. “You’re no use to me dead.”

“And that’s all it is? Usefulness?” Cisco seemed to be trying to peer into his soul.

“Is that not enough of an explanation for you? Because it’s all the explanation you’re getting.”

“It doesn’t explain much. ‘Usefulness’ doesn’t explain the desperation you’ve shown.”

Finally meeting Cisco’s eyes, Leonard was shocked at how much sharper they seemed now. He seemed to be pushing all his recovery into his stare. “Are people not desperate to save lives?”

“People are. You’ve never seemed like that type of person.”

“My, what low opinion you have of me,” Leonard smirked. “recover quickly. I don’t need you listening in on my plans.”

Leonard turned to leave, but not before Cisco got in a last comment: “If you didn’t want me here, you could have sent me back with my brother. You need me for something.”

The damn Omega was right. He scanned the room when he got downstairs, a habit picked up in his childhood. Lisa was passed out on the couch, recovering after two connections so close together. Mick was drinking his fire drinks in the kitchen.

After draping a blanket over Lisa, he headed into the kitchen to talk with Mick. “Kid’s finally recovering?” he asked before knocking back another shot.

“He’s strong enough to ask questions.” Leonard eyed the alcohol to the side. “You mind?”

Mick handed the bottle over, relishing the flaming line of shots he’d already poured. “What type of questions?”

“Why we’re trying to save him. Why we didn’t let him go with his brother.” Leonard downed a shot he’d just poured for himself, and sighed. “I can feel your eyes on me. Just say it.”

“Why didn’t we let him go? We have what we need.”

“It was originally about power. Getting a backup plan set up for stopping the Flash from arresting us the second we didn’t have leverage. But then…”

“But then the damn kid passed out. I was there.”

Leonard poured himself another drink, this time staring at it for a moment. “We’re not supposed to be heroes. We’re the bad guys. We hurt people. Kill them sometimes. We rob people. So what are we doing helping him?”

Mick threw back the last of his shots, sighing. “Dunno. But if you start getting all ‘guilt-ridden’ I’m out of here. Speaking of,” He picked the bottle back up from where Snart had set it down. “I’m heading to bed. You can keep moping about but I’m taking the alcohol.”

Snart nodded. Mick’s Pure Alpha status helped him avoid getting drunk as easily. Something about it his muscle mass versus the alcohol content. One of these days he’d have to ask for specifics on how that worked.

Maybe Mick was right. Maybe it was guilt. They’d never done anything to hurt an Omega before. In fact they’d avoided it wherever possible. This was unknown territory. He glanced back over to where Lisa was sleeping on the couch. He should go to sleep himself. He doubted the kid would try anything in his state. Maybe he’d regret not standing sentry in the morning, but he doubted it.

A noise startled Cisco from his sleep, jarring him into consciousness a moment before the room he was in was filled with electricity. For a moment he thought Barry had found him, till he woke up enough to recognize that the lightning sparking around him was red.

The Reverse Flash stood there, hand gently extending towards Cisco. “It’s alright Omega, you’re safe.”

Backing up against the bedframe, Cisco shook his head. The Reverse Flash frowned, grabbing Cisco’s arm and then they were gone in a flash of lightning.

When Cisco opened his eyes again he was in a pale bedroom, windows staring out into a forest. A padded cuff chained him to the bed, and that fact alone made him shudder more than anything else happening.

He had been set down, standing on both feet, the Reverse Flash’s hand steadying him.

“What do you want with me?” His voice shook, and he knew he needed to find somewhere to lie down, and fast.

“Of all the ways I imagined this reality, I never expected to have you properly to myself.”

Cisco knew that voice. He hated that he knew that voice. But he knew it, and he instantly knew why his connections had broken. “You can’t be… Dr. Wells? Why??” He pulled away sharply, collapsing onto the floor even as he continued to shake.

The Reverse Flash pulled back his cowl, eyes glowing red from the face of Dr. Wells. “Cisco, you’re pale, you need to connect-”

“Don’t touch me!” Cisco flinched away, curling in on himself as he shook. Dr. Wells was a beta, the Reverse Flash was an Alpha, they couldn’t be the same person. It wasn’t possible! But here he was, frowning even as he crouched down to where Cisco was curled up on the floor, as far away from him as the chain would allow. It wasn’t far.

“ **Stay still,** ” he commanded, and in a moment Wells had knelt in front of him, taking the glove off his hand and reaching out, grasping Cisco’s neck.

Cisco screamed, trying to push Wells off as he connected, energy flooding Cisco faster than any Beta connection could.

Alpha energy. It burned, overwhelming his senses and sending shocks of electric energy charging through his body.

After a minute of failing to fight off Wells, the connection stopped, leaving Cisco panting on the floor, shuddering as his system tried to incorporate the unwanted energy.

He flinched back at the hand grabbing his arm, hauling him up. Wells deposited him on the bed, gently draping a blanket over his shoulders before turning to leave.

“…Thawne.”

Wells froze in the doorway. “What?”

“Your name. Eobard Thawne. You’re not Dr. Wells. You can’t be.” Tears began to trace down his face as he stared at the ceiling. “There’s no way he would do this to me.”

The man sighed, turning to face him. “I’m impressed you found that name. In one way you’re correct. I’m not Harrison Wells. Never have been. I am, however, the man who hired you out of college after your run in with the scientists experimenting on Omegas. I am the same man you’ve been connecting with for the past year. My name is Eobard Thawne. I killed the original Wells 15 years ago. How do you know?”

Cisco remained silent, and Wells, or Thawne, sighed, leaving the room.

It took half an hour for Cisco to stumble to the attached bathroom, chain barely stretching to the shower. He climbed in, one foot awkwardly stuck outside the tub as he turned on the shower, letting it flow over him and ease some of the pain he was experiencing.

From one kidnapping to another. But this was different. Snart and Rory were villains. They’d kidnapped him, tortured his brother for information. But then they’d helped him recover. Respected his boundaries. Hadn’t…

Hadn’t forced a connection on him.

Alpha energy. Cisco wanted to puke as it continued to flood through him. How Thawne had managed to produce both Beta and Alpha energy, he wasn’t sure. Though if he had to hazard a guess he’d say Thawne was probably a Split: someone whose personalities can’t decide which is dominant and which is secondary, and both take up equal parts of the mind. They could pass as either.

He had strength now, not enough to fully recover from the last few days, but he wasn’t coughing up blood. He almost wished he were, rather than standing up with Thawne’s strength coursing through him.

He curled up under the water, wishing the energy out of his body. He wanted the connection to break, needed it to break, it had broken so easily before he knew what had happened, why wouldn’t it break now??

He knew why. The connection now was honest. Brutally so. Connections only broke when something the connection was based on broke. When the trust he’d had in Wells had broken. But this connection wasn’t built on trust. It was carved into his veins by Alpha command. Wells wasn’t pretending anymore. And he was still more powerful than Cisco. Still in command of him. So this poisonous connection flooding through his body wouldn’t break. Not unless Wells did. And Cisco couldn’t make that happen.

Len woke up to Lisa pounding on his door. “Lenny, Cisco’s gone. The window in his room is open, and he’s disappeared.”

Len frowned, downing the water he kept on his table for nights after he’d been drinking.

Moving past his sister, he checked the safe room. Sure enough, the window was open, blankets knotted and tied together. He hadn’t thought the Omega had that much energy left in him.

“He’s probably too far away to track down now. We’ve got to get going before he tells the Flash where we are.”

Mick nodded, already packing all that mattered to him: his alcohol. Lisa paused though. “Where are we going? And are we sure he’ll be alright?”

Len nodded. “If he could climb down those blankets, then he’s doing better than we thought. He’ll be fine. We on the other hand need to get out of town before the Flash comes after us. We’ll return when we’ve got a better plan.”

Barry was called into the cortex by Dr. Wells and Caitlin, nervousness fading as he saw the footage on the screen.

“We caught movement on the traffic cameras for a few minutes. Snart and his gang have moved safe houses, we can’t track where they’ve gone to.” Wells was at the computer, typing away furiously.

Barry swore, crumbling the card with Snart’s phone number on it. He couldn’t believe he’d been duped so easily. Snart pretended to care about Cisco, but really just needed the extra time with Barry off his back so he could escape Central and take Cisco with him.

“I’m going to go run laps of the city, tell me if anything changes.” He paused, glancing at Caitlin. “We will get him back. Snart won’t get away with this.”

Wells masked his expression well, but inside he was thrilled. His plan had worked perfectly. Both sides blamed the other, and Cisco’s true location was a mystery to both parties. He had the Omega all to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've updated the tags, let me know if I should add any tags, and please stay safe reading!

Almost a week had gone by, and they were finally confident that the Flash wouldn’t be able to find them. Snart had worked with one of his contacts to set up a link he needed to update manually, containing the Flash’s identity. A fail safe in case the Flash tried to take vengeance on him after all.

Still, he worried. For Cisco to have gone back to the man who had supposedly killed him, that couldn’t be safe. How would he explain the broken connections? Would he still try to connect with Wells?

And where had his fear of Alphas come from? He’d scanned through the new articles and records, trying to find something. He was even tempted to hack into the police database, but when he did he found nothing.

Cisco Ramon had lead a quiet life, attending college for engineering, and accepting a job at STAR labs right out of-right out of college? No internship or other jobs? Immediately got hired at the biggest company in his field. Were his scores that good?

Looking at the cold gun, Leonard could believe that Cisco was that good. But there was still something off about it. Harrison Wells. Even before Cisco’s dreams, something had seemed off about that man. Leonard had just chalked it up to the fact that he was behind the particle accelerator explosion. But what if it was more?

“Lenny, you’re thinking too hard.” Leonard closed the laptop as Lisa entered the room. “Cisco’s gonna be alright. He’s back with his people.”

“But what if he’s in even more danger now?” He hadn’t meant it to come out as a growl. Thankfully Lisa was used to Alphas.

“We did all we could for him. He was able to run away from us on his own, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

Leonard nodded, but he wasn’t convinced. He wouldn’t be convinced till he had answers.

Fire raged around Barry as he sped through the building, hauling out residents and animals while trying to avoid being seen. It wasn’t as easy as usual, and he paused in a shadowed part of the corridor to catch his breath until Caitlin’s voice sounded in his ear.

“Barry, that structure isn’t sound, you need to move!”

Barry dodged out of the way just as a beam collapsed, crashing to the ground where he’d been standing a moment before. He cursed, running back through and checking the rest of the building before leaving once he’d determined everyone was out.

“If there’s no more reports, I’m coming back.”

The night had been insanely busy, and he didn’t want to keep going, but a part of him was scared to stop. Scared to think about the fact that it had been two weeks since Cisco was first taken. Almost two weeks since Snart had met him at that bar, and then disappeared the next day with Cisco.

He hadn’t told them about the meeting with Snart. Partly because he was embarrassed about how easily he’d been tricked. But partly because… Partly because somewhere deep inside, he still kind of believed Snart. That part of him grew smaller every day Cisco was missing, but there was a part of him deep inside that wanted to believe Snart wasn’t as evil as all that.

But he couldn’t listen to that part. Because then he wouldn’t know what to think. Wouldn’t know who to trust. He had to keep moving. Keep running. Keep searching. If he gave up… he couldn’t, _wouldn’t_ give up on Cisco.

One of the things about connections was it allowed Omegas and whoever they were connecting with to see into each other’s minds. Cisco had never really let his mind stray into the other person’s during connections though. He thought it would be an invasion of privacy. Now he regretted that decision. Wells, or Thawne as it turned out, was an open book once Cisco looked. He could see the anger and hatred burning just beneath the surface. Just below his surface, as that energy swirled in his veins, a branding mark of Thawne’s control over him.

“Cisco?” He clenched his hands at his name, but remained still. He was resting his head on his arms, which rested on his legs, curled tightly under him. A small ball chained on top of a bed. Bruising from… _before,_ ached, and he couldn’t wait for Thawne to leave so he could shower in peace. Maybe he’d be lucky and Thawne would stay away long enough for him to fall asleep without him there. Though he wouldn’t be lucky enough to wake up alone as well.

“Omega, **Look at me.** ” Cisco tightened his jaw at the command, refusing to move. It hurt, but he’d rather keep his sanity than submit. Two weeks, and he was still fighting the small battles for his mind.

A hand grabbed his jaw, moving his head. Before he could see Thawne, the world around him faded to shades of blue. He saw the Reverse Flash standing in CCPN, killing Mason Bridge. A twinge of pain ran through him as Thawne shoved his hand through Mason’s chest, and suddenly it was his own chest, they were in the bunker, and he was being murdered again, those same sick words playing in his head. _“Forgive me, but to me you’ve been dead for centuries.”_

Reality crashed down on him as quickly as the vision had come. Thawne was kneeling in front of him, a frown slashed across his features, eyes hard.

Cisco flinched back from Thawne’s hand, gasping for air. The visions had started changing once Thawne had abducted him, no longer just showing him his own death, but the horrible deaths of other who had gotten in Thawne’s way. Eiling’s fate, possessed by Grodd.

But this was the first time it had happened during the day. This was the first time it’d been anything more than a nightmare.

This was the first time he knew they were all true.

“…you killed Mason Bridge.”

Thawne straightened, crossing his arms. “So that’s how it is.” He smirked then, and something in it made Cisco want to run. He stayed put though, knowing what happened when he tried. When the Alpha in Thawne sensed him as prey. He had enough bruises for one day already. “I had wondered. However it seems removing you from them hasn’t changed the timeline, so I suppose your contribution isn’t as important as the history books had assumed. They make do without you.”

He was curious about that part about the history books, but another part of his words rang through Cisco’s mind. He’d been removed from his friends. Thawne didn’t talk like he planned on letting Cisco go. Ever.

Cisco tried to take a deep breath to calm the panic the flooded through him at that. Thawne wasn’t done talking though.

“I’m curious, when did these visions start?” Cisco shook his head. Any information Thawne wanted was information he didn’t want to give.

“ **Cisco, answer me,** ” but Cisco shook his head, pulling himself into a tighter ball. Thawne growled, grabbing Cisco by the arm.

Cisco screamed as the connection flared down his arm, encompassing him. The mental searching aspect of connections was meant to be for bringing pack together, by helping them share feelings when words failed. It wasn’t meant as an interrogation technique, but that was exactly how Thawne was using it.

He let go of Cisco after a minute, and Cisco collapsed onto the bed, retching.

“You told Snart. Really? That mangy Alpha?” The anger in his voice along with the agony coursing through Cisco’s veins had Cisco reaching to cover his neck, but before he could protect himself Thawne grabbed Cisco’s arm, yanking him off the bed and pulling him into a dominating kiss. “You belong to me, Omega. No one else.” Thawne released Cisco, who dropped to the ground, clenching the chain in his hand to try and ground himself.

Thawne glared down at him, before turning on his heel and leaving the room.

Cisco couldn’t do this anymore. He didn’t know how he’d managed to make it this long, but he couldn’t keep going. There were no blades in the bathroom, nothing he could use to pick the lock on the cuff or to break something. Nothing to call for help with. The only thing here was the stupid chain he had in his hands. The same chain that had been used to keep him here for the last two weeks.

He looked at the chain intently. He couldn’t do this anymore.

Len winced as he woke up, a light above his head glaring on him. He kept his eyes shut, trying to remember what happened. How he’d ended up here. He could feel his arms shackled behind him, he was on a concrete floor, and his head hurt. Before his memory could return however, the smell hit him. Scared Omega. He winced again as he tried to open his eyes. “I don’t mean you any harm, Omeg-” His eyes opened and he got a chance to look at the Omega chained opposite him. “Cisco?” 

He looked around the room. He was in a cell, they were chained on opposite sides of the wall, too far apart to reach out to each other. Cisco had his head bowed, refusing to look up. The room was bare bones, with a door on one end, a toilet on the other, and a table in the middle of the room.

It didn’t bode well. What also didn’t bode well was Cisco’s silent stillness. He always rambled or fidgeted when nervous or scared. But he was sitting still, head bowed, not saying a word. “Cisco, how did you end up here? How long have you been here?”

Nothing. Aside from the smell of terrified Omega, Len got no response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There WILL be a happy ending, I promise, it just takes a while to get there. Through much angst and few moments of fluff. But mostly angst right now.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Always darkest before the dawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .....This chapter was very hard to write. And we're almost through the worst of this part, but, yeah. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

The silence was deafening, so Len took the chance to try and remember what had happened. He remembered Lisa and Mick were casing out another target, and he’d been at home. The telltale lightning of a speedster was the last thing he remembered. Red lightning, then unconsciousness.

“The Reverse Flash was Wells wasn’t he.” It was less a question and more confirming what he already knew. A brief nod, but that was all. Cisco still wouldn’t look up. How exactly the Reverse Flash had found him, he wasn’t sure. But he did know without him answering his cell phone, Lisa and Mick wouldn’t even bother going back to the safe house. So as long as Wells hadn’t gone looking for them directly, they’d be safe from any traps he might have left for them.

He sighed, looking back at Cisco. “Did you even run away? Or did he just take you and make it look like you ran.” Cisco shook his head. “No to which? You didn’t run away?” Cisco shook his head, then paused, nodded, then shook his head. “…Wells kidnapped you that night?” A nod. This was irritating.

“What does this creep want with me anyway? Got tired of picking on an Omega? Needs to prove himself by picking on an Alpha?” Still nothing. “What, no response? No quips? You had more than enough words for me before.” Silence. “Are you scared? What am I going to do to you anyway, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m chained up over here. Actually…” he stopped talking, because he’d just noticed Cisco’s chains.

His own hands were chained behind his back, and he wouldn’t be able to get to Cisco, but he could still move. He could probably reach the toilet if he tried. But Cisco… Cisco’s hands were chained above his head, to the point where it had to be painful.

A display of dominance? Or…

“Did you do something?” What was off about the chains was clear, now that he was looking at them. Two links seemed off, as if broken off from a larger chain and pieced back together again shorter. Cisco shrank back into the wall, pulling his legs up to his chest, even as he kept his head bowed. “Cisco, what did you do?” He growled, but stopped as soon as the scent of fear got stronger. "Cisco, look at me.” The scent got stronger still, this time with shame mixed in. Len was starting to get nervous. “Cisco, I’m sorry. **Look at me.** ”

Cisco jerked his head up at the command, just for a second before pulling his head back down. It was enough. Len had seen the bruising around his neck. The same shape as the chains.

“Cisco… did you try to kill yourself?”

When Wells came back, Len had worked himself into a fit of anger. “You bastard! Killing him yourself wasn’t enough, you had to make him try to kill himself? Is that why he won’t talk? Because he can’t?!”

“Interesting, he didn’t speak to you either. Perhaps this is more physical inability than just stubbornness.”

Len yanked at the chains, trying to break free of them. “He’s an Omega. He requires safety, you’re killing him from the inside!”

Cisco shrank further against the wall, shaking so hard the chains rattled. In a moment Wells was there, unlocking the chains and lifting Cisco into his arms. Cisco just curled into himself.

“Hey bastard, leave him alone!”

“We’re done here.” And he was gone, taking Cisco with him.

Len didn’t see Cisco for two more days. He was trying to find a way out of the cuffs when Wells was in the room, Cisco cuffed to the opposing wall again. “You have 15 minutes.” And then he was gone.

Cisco immediately shrank back against the wall. “What did he mean we have 15 minutes?” No response. “Still can’t talk?”

Cisco shook his head. At least he kept his head up this time. It seemed the bruising was starting to fade. Not much, but enough that the swelling seemed to have gone down.

“Do you know if he’s recording us right now?”

Cisco shrugged, glancing around the room, especially at the corners. He looked back and shrugged again.

Len sighed, racking his brain for something to say. Some way to comfort Cisco. 15 minutes. Probably less now. “Any idea what he wants?” Cisco stiffened, looking down. “Right, you can’t speak. I’m sorry.”

Cisco looked up so fast Len was surprised nothing cracked. “Yes, I’m capable of apologizing. Don’t look so surprised.”

Cisco snorted. Len figured if he’d been able to use his throat it probably would have been a laugh. He’d take what he could get at this point.

There was a moment of silence, before Len had to ask. “Cisco. Is he hurting you? More than just the forced connections.”

Cisco’s eyes grew wide, and his scent panicked. He shook his head, trying to move his hands forward, palms open. Universal for ‘you’ve got the wrong idea’.

“You’re trying to tell me he hasn’t been forcing connections on you? Because in the state you were in when you were taken, you’d be catatonic by now without connection, even with your status as a pure.”

Shock and terror flooded the room as Cisco pulled back, pressing himself to the wall.

“Shit. I didn’t mean to say that.” Len leaned his own head against the wall. “Yes, I know you’re pure. I’ve known the whole time. Mick’s a pure, so I’m used to the difference.”

Slowly, Cisco’s pulse calmed down, allowing him to suck in a few breaths. He was still more on edge than he had been before though.

“I’m guessing Wells probably knows too, since he’s been forcing connections.” Cisco shook his head. “He doesn’t know you’re a pure?” A quick shake of the head, and Cisco tried to move his hands in a ‘rewind’ gesture. “You’re saying he’s not forcing connections?” Cisco shuddered, but nodded. “I find it hard to believe you’re consenting to it. Unless you’re telling me he’s abducted someone else to connect with you, which, given his creepy possessive streak, isn’t really possible.” In response Cisco simply shrugged. “Cisco, you can’t minimize what he’s doing to you, there’s a reason forced connections are illegal, they’re as psychologically scarring as rape!”

Cisco flinched at the word, lowering his gaze.

Len groaned, clenching his fists. He was bad at this. Being comforting. He hadn’t needed to be since he and Lisa had left his father’s house, and before then she just wanted physical comfort. A hug here and there, reassurances that he wouldn’t let her get hurt again.

He couldn’t do either of those here.

“…I’m sorry I’m being such an ass. I’m…worried.” God that sounded weird coming out of his mouth. But he had to keep going. “You’re being so strong. We will get out of here. Somehow. We’ll get you back to your team. Everything will be alright.” The words sounded forced even to his own ears. But Cisco gave a slight smile, relaxing a little.

The next few days continued like that. Every day Cisco was brought down, for 15 minutes, and Len would try to cheer him up, to tell him that everything would be alright. Len figured it was every day. But honestly, he had no real way to tell time. Water was provided at intervals, but never food. He estimated he had a few months before it became dangerous for him. Either Wells would starve him, or someone would find them. It didn’t make the hunger pains any less though. At least it seemed Cisco was given food.

Then one day, Cisco didn’t appear. That in and of itself was worrying. He couldn’t get a read on anything happening beyond the door, he’d tried multiple times before. The scents were probably being blocked somehow. He paced as far as the chain would allow, before sitting back down and trying to sleep.

Cisco wasn’t sure what was happening.

They were back in the same room, but Thawne was still there, dragging Cisco to the center of the room and cuffing him to the table, before unlocking Len’s cuffs and hauling him to the other side of the table and doing the same. They weren’t close enough to touch though. Cisco stared between the two of them, confused.

Thawne stepped back, pulling out the glowing cylinder and placing it on the table before he addressed Cisco.

“Here’s how this is going to happen. You’re going to make this work. And every time you stop, I break one of his bones.”

The color drained out of Cisco’s face. He shook his head before he even knew what he was doing, and Thawne frowned, grabbing Len’s arm and vibrating through.

Len bit back a scream and Cisco jerked against the table, before holding up his free hand pleadingly.

Thawne frowned. “I don’t see you working.”

Cisco nodded, grabbing the cylinder and the tools, working as best he could with one hand. Len was pulling in labored breaths, and Cisco was tempted to glance up to check on him, but he wasn’t sure if that would cost him another bone.

It barely took 10 minutes, and Cisco stepped back with his hand up the second it was done.

Thawne frowned, examining it. “Well done Cisco. I knew you could do it.”

Cisco bristled under the praise, but then Thawne stepped away and Cisco rattled the cuffs to get his attention.

He turned back, and Cisco gestured towards Len. Frowning, Thawne unlocked the cuffs. “Heal him if you must. But connect with him and he’ll be the next one chained to my bed.” Then he was gone.

Cisco rushed to Len, carefully reaching for his arm to heal it, even as the words processed in Len’s mind.

“Cisco, what did he mean?” He focused on healing Len’s arm, imagining the break reknitting under his hands. “Cisco, has he- has he been raping you?” Cisco tried to ignore the words, but he could feel the tears leaking down his face. “Oh god- Cisco… I…” the second Cisco let go of his arm, having finished healing it, Len carefully reached for his shoulder, then gently pulled him into a hug, tucking Cisco’s head under his chin. “We’re going to survive this. We’re going to get out. This won’t last forever.”

Cisco clung to him, trying to suppress the shudders. He couldn’t go on like this. But as guilty as it made him feel, he was glad Len was here. He was glad he didn’t have to be alone. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to hold on to reality if he were left alone again.

Wells had been raping Cisco. Len was sure that information alone had hurt worse than the break had. Len was still cuffed to the table, holding Cisco in one arm. He could see it now. The bruising along his wrists that had been hidden by the cuffs before. Marks along his neck. Len pulled Cisco tighter to him, rubbing circles into his back. His arm still hurt, but it wasn’t broken anymore. He was sure Cisco would have to connect again to recover the energy he’d lost in healing him. Len gently lowered them both so they were sitting, even with his hand still cuffed to the table above him. It would be easier on Cisco.

“It’s going to be alright, he’s not here, we’re going to make it out of this. You’re being so strong.” He could feel the Omega relaxing under the praise. This was wrong. He shouldn’t be the one helping Cisco, it should be his team. Maybe if he’d let Cisco go with his brother…

He shook his head. Focusing on what had been wasn’t going to stop Cisco from hurting now. Cisco pulled back briefly, opening his mouth and trying to say something. After a moment, Len realized he couldn’t get the words out, and was starting to panic. “Hey, it’s alright, you don’t have to try. If you can’t speak yet it’s fine, you’ll get there. Just take a few deep breaths, try to relax. You’re safe for now.”

The _for now_ hung in the air. Wells would come back. He’d take Cisco away again. Rape him again. And Len couldn’t do anything to stop it.

He shoved the thoughts out of his mind, focusing on trying to get Cisco to relax, to stop shaking. He needed this moment of safety, however brief.

All too soon Wells was back, and Len tightened his arms around Cisco, who had finally fallen asleep.

“He’s asleep. Don’t do this.”

Wells just raised an eyebrow. “Your time’s up. Release him without a fight, and I won’t wake him.”

“What you’re doing to him is wrong. You’re traumatizing him, possibly past the point of recovery.”

“What I do with my Omega is none of your business.”

“He’s not your Omega.”

Wells bristled. “Is that so?”

Len knew he was walking on dangerous ground here. “He’s not mine either. He doesn’t belong to anyone, he’s his own person, and what you’re doing to him is wrong.”

Wells glanced down at his arm. “I see Cisco healed you. If you don’t let him go, I will snap your arms and leave you alone in your agony for the next week.”

“…then leave him uncuffed while he’s here. I won’t connect. But he needs physical contact from someone he trusts. Or do you want him trying to kill himself again?” Wells frowned. “You might be deranged but you can’t have made it this far without some understanding of how humans think. You’ve taken everything away from him. He needs to be able to hold onto something.”

“You’re offering yourself? You know that won’t change the situation. You’re still my prisoner. You’re still just leverage over Cisco.”

“And how well has that been working for you? He wasn’t down here yesterday, I’m guessing your ability to use me is slipping, he’s not falling for it anymore. Whatever you’ve been having him do to ‘earn’ time here, he refused to do it.” He hated this. Hated every second of it. Hated that he was using Cisco’s mental state to barter. But anything he could do to keep Cisco alive. Anything at all, he’d do it.

“He already knows what happens if he connects with you. But if you connect with him,”

“I won’t,” Len promised.

Wells grinned. An evil look that promised malice. “If you connect with him, I will take him in front of you.”

Leonard shuddered. “I won’t connect.”

Wells nodded, and Len relaxed his hand. Everything in him screamed at him to hold Cisco tighter, to protect him. But he needed to rely on his Beta side right now. To tell him that he had to lose this battle if he was going to win the war for Cisco’s sanity. Cisco was asleep right now. And as long as he was asleep, there was a chance his mind was somewhere safe. The longer he stayed in that safe place, the better for everyone.

There was too much going on. Too much happening to concentrate, it had been almost a month since Cisco had been taken, and now Barry had reason to believe Harrison Wells was the Reverse Flash.

He didn’t know if he was ready to tell Caitlin though. She was still spending every waking minute searching for Cisco, and was confiding in Dr. Wells about all her fears. Finding out he was really an enemy might break her.

He was about to leave for the evening when the telltale sound of one of Cisco’s guns sounded behind him. He whirled just in time to see Golden Glider’s gun pointed at him, Heatwave standing behind her.

“Alright Flash, where’s Lenny?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this things get better! I promise!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost there!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Briefly! I'm so sorry! *hides*

“You understand why I had to do this, right?” Cisco stared down at his hands, refusing to answer. Wells-Thawne, whatever his name was, had thought he was going catatonic. Even Len downstairs thought the same. That wasn’t it. He just didn’t see the point in responding anymore. There was no way out without breaking the cuff. There was nothing in the room he could use to break the cuff, and nothing in Len’s cell either. Even the worktable hadn’t had anything he could pocket, and he’d only been around it for a brief moment. A brief, horrible few minutes that he was still recovering from.

The dizziness of healing someone with his abilities didn’t go away easily, and with Beta connections could take months to fully heal. Thawne’s forced Alpha connections were erasing the dizziness, and replacing it with their own form of toxic energy.

The shortened chain meant he couldn’t run to the bathroom to throw up, and he was trying desperately to force down the nausea before he threw up on the bed. Thawne’s hand ran over his arm, almost soothingly. Cisco shuddered, gagging and almost losing the fight with his stomach. “Maybe I need to look at your diet. You don’t seem to be keeping food down as well as before.”

 _Before you kidnapped, raped, and forced connections on me?_ He desperately wanted to say, but even if he’d had a death wish the damage to his throat was still keeping him from speaking.

“I had to take you away, because I couldn’t risk you telling Barry. I need to get home. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get there.” Thawne stood up off the bed where he’d been lying, reading his book after their most recent forced connection. “You’re going to love it there. So much technology, so many chances for you to grow.”

That shocked a response out of Cisco, he jerked his head up, mouth open to voice the protests his throat still wouldn’t allow. Thawne cupped Cisco’s cheek, pulling him into a kiss. Cisco closed his eyes and let it happen. It was easier than fighting it. It was easier not to fight than to bother fighting and lose. To go through the physical pain.

Thawne licked at Cisco’s lip, demanding entrance and Cisco opened his mouth, trying to ignore the tear tracing down his face as Thawne took what he wanted. He stepped back, sighing as he stared at Cisco. “You really are magnificent aren’t you. Even with your mistakes with Snart.”

Then Thawne was gone, most likely wouldn’t be back for several hours, and Cisco fell back onto the bed, trying to stay sane. There had to be a way to get out. Something he hadn’t thought of yet. He took a moment to catalogue everything he had access to. Since his stint with the chain, not much. He could stand up awkwardly, but his foot had to stay on the bed, the chain restricted to only allow him a foot of freedom. Thawne had to come back throughout the day so Cisco could use the restroom, or eat, but apparently he was willing to run the risk to keep Cisco from trying anything else.

He was on a bed. His foot was chained to the bed, and nothing there was willing to come free. Even if there was a way to wear it down over time, Thawne investigated it each night. He wouldn’t be able to hide any significant damage from him. Then there were the sheets on the bed, the mattress itself, and the rest of the bedframe. Useless. Maybe he could braid the sheets to a rope and hang himself? No, Thawne would show up before he got away with it, just like he had last time. And then Len would be hurt for it.

Why did he care? It was Captain Cold! Why should he care what happened to Captain Cold anyway?

He sighed, dragging his hand over his face, wiping away the last traces of the tears. He cared because this was his fault. He cared because Len was doing his best to help him, to his own detriment. And sure, maybe it was just because he was an Omega. But it was better than anything Thawne was doing to him.

Len had seemed genuinely disgusted at Thawne for raping Cisco.

He’d survived shit like this before, he could do it again. He wasn’t weak, he wasn’t pathetic, he wasn’t some useless Omega that had to wait for someone else to rescue him.

Except, that’s exactly what was happening here. He couldn’t do anything. He’d tried to fight, he’d tried to resist, he’d done everything he could think of, and here he was, chained to a bed, waiting for someone else to come save him. Waiting for Barry to save him.

Was he this pathetic last time?

No, that Cisco Ramon would probably have grabbed a scalpel off some scientist’s table and sliced his own foot off to get out of the cuff.

Alright, maybe he needed to see someone about his self-destructive ideas. He’d focus on that when he escaped. 

He sat up, glaring around the room again. There had to be a way out of here. Desk, night table, plenty of glass in the kitchen no doubt, but the damn chain was still a problem. He needed a way to get it off. Nothing to cut it off, nothing to pick the lock with, even if he knew how-

But Len did.

But he never saw Len while the chain was on him, even if Len had a way to pick the locks.

Cisco groaned, rubbing the bruises on his neck where they ached. Stupid damn reminders.

This wasn’t even the first time he’d thought about this. No. He’d been running these thoughts through his mind for the last month, desperate for a way out. This was the reason he’d had to try to end things in the first place. He had no way to escape, no chance of freedom, and no way to get a message to Barry like last time.

He grabbed a pillow, trying to scream into it. What came out was barely more than a raspy squeak. No, this couldn’t be what this amounted to!

Cisco scrambled off the side of the bed, only one foot even reaching the floor, the other still chained to the bed. He reached towards the desk, squeaking again as he collapsed onto the floor, foot still chained. He sat up, rubbing at his arms to look back. He winced at the sight of the bedframe. There was definitely a scratch there. He briefly weighed his options. He could keep throwing his full weight against the bedframe, hoping for it to snap before Thawne came back. Several problems with that idea. 1: It was metal, and sturdy. 2: He had to find a way for Len to escape too. 3: Where the hell would they go? Maybe he could find a phone in the house, but he doubted Thawne would be so careless. And if they were at Thawne’s house, then they were miles away from anywhere else. Thawne would have no problems tracking them down before they reached civilization, and Thawne had made it very clear what he’d do if he caught Cisco trying to escape.

He shuddered, wishing the chain would reach the shower now.

So he couldn’t try to escape yet. Not without a plan. But what about the dent? He could climb back to his feet and get back on the bed and wait for Thawne, and be accused of hiding it, or he could stay where he was and bring Thawne’s attention to the dent immediately, and maybe it would be written off as nothing but a clumsy accident. Either way, Cisco’d had no way to argue with whatever Thawne decided.

He lay back down on the ground. The ceiling looked different from this angle. Easier to zone out of everything happening.

A few hours later Thawne was back, stopping in the doorway to smirk at Cisco. “Having some problems trying to escape?” Cisco sat up, shaking his head violently and gesturing to the shortened chain. “Oh I know, makes it rather difficult to move around. But that’s what you get for trying to harm what belongs to me.”

Cisco tried to suppress the anger at being referred to as Thawne’s, trying to climb to his feet now that Thawne knew about the damage. Thawne smirked, glancing down at Cisco, and he felt that much more exposed as he struggled to stand up. Before he could succeed, Thawne stepped over Cisco’s chest, dropping down to his knees and pushing Cisco back onto the floor. “Oh no, you’re not going anywhere Omega.”

Cisco closed his eyes, forcing himself to relax. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt this time. Maybe Thawne would let him shower afterwards. Maybe he’d get to see Len later and be held in Len’s arms.

As Thawne gathered Cisco’s hands together above his head, Cisco realized how much his ‘maybes’ were starting to become less ‘maybe Barry will find me and save me’ and more ‘maybe today won’t be as bad as yesterday.’

Then Thawne’s hand began pulling down Cisco’s underwear, and he forced himself to zone out again.

Barry froze for a moment, processing. He was outside his suit, meaning Cold had already told them who he was. He could try to go for his suit anyway for the extra protection from their weapons, but he’d seen how fast Cold was to the trigger, he wasn’t confident he could outrun Lisa or Mick, let alone both of them when he had no idea where Cold was to begin with-wait.

“Captain Cold’s missing??”

“Real quick on the uptake this one,” grumbled Mick, but he lowered his gun marginally.

Lisa was more pissed off now, backing Barry into a corner with her gun placed squarely against his chest. “If you didn’t take Lenny then who did?”

Barry shrugged, hands up. He wasn’t used to dealing with these people outside of his suit, especially when they already knew about his powers and didn’t seem too phased by them. “I don’t know, I didn’t even know he was missing until 30 seconds ago! If I knew where you guys have been I would have rescued Cisco by now!”

Lisa stopped, and Mick was instantly on edge. “…You don’t have Cisco?”

“Don’t have- what do you mean _I_ don’t have Cisco, you lot ran off with him over a month ago! I haven’t been able to track you!”

Lisa lowered her weapon, glancing back at Mick, then back to Barry. “We left because Cisco escaped. We thought he was heading back here, and didn’t particularly feel like staying in one spot for you to arrest us.”

Despite what Mick had said, Barry was capable of thinking very quickly. The second Lisa said that, pieces started clicking into place, and Barry activated his speed just to give himself time to think.

If Cold hadn’t been manipulating Barry, then his warning had been right. And his warning had indicated that someone close to Barry was the Reverse Flash. It was the final damning piece to nail in the coffin of Harrison Wells. And if Cisco disappeared, supposedly running away, then the only reason he wasn’t back would be that someone had abducted him. Why would Wells want Cisco though, unless-

Unless Cisco had figured out who he was. Had Cisco told Cold that information?

“How long has Cold been missing, and was he investigating anyone before it happened?”

Lisa seemed taken aback. “A few weeks, and only you and your team. Why?”

“Before you ran off, he met me at a bar, told me to be careful. After you ran off, I figured he’d just been trying to buy enough time to sneak out, but if he was right… I think I know who has him. And Cisco. But then they’re both in a lot of danger, and we need a plan to address this.”

Mick was staring up at the corners. “Hey, is that dangerous person a part of your team here?”

“Yeah, why?”

Using his free hand, Mick pointed up at the red flashing light in the corner. “ ‘Cause we’re on camera right now.”

At Barry and Lisa’s stares, he shrugged. “What? I work with Betas, I pick things up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost there, I swear! Also, I haven't given up on any of my fics, work just got insane and then I quit my job because they couldn't get their act together and I've been panicking about that, heh....   
> Thank you so much for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yup. This is happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My brain won't calm down, I may have accidentally started writing 5 more fics, um, enjoy?

Barry was here. He knew from the telltale ozone, and the way Thawne tensed up behind him. His hope was quickly drowned by fear as Thawne pulled him away, using his speed to phase them into one of his hidden rooms. Cisco knew from their ‘conversations’ that Thawne had several of these, one hidden inside STAR labs itself. If they waited in here, Barry would never know the room was here, and would leave, giving Thawne a chance to get away with Cisco.

Cisco wanted to scream. At least Barry would find Len, would be able to get him away and to safety, but he was so close, so damn close, and he’d never know Cisco was here!

The scream welled up inside him, nowhere to go, echoing under his skin, a fire ignited by the toxic connections, the pain, the frustration, everything Thawne had done to him. He couldn’t scream, he couldn’t get it out, trapped inside until he couldn’t take it anymore, opening his mouth and willing the noise out.

It didn’t work. Of course it didn’t. Even if his throat wasn’t destroyed, Thawne was in front of him in an instant, slamming him back against the wall and covering his mouth before he could scream.

The scream came out though. The fire and pain and anger had nowhere else to go, erupting from his hands in waves of pain and anger, blasting Thawne through the other wall, lights flickering as everything shook, and for a moment, Cisco couldn’t do anything but stand there, shocked. He’d fought back. And won. Then his vision faded out as electricity surrounded him and he blacked out.

It happened suddenly. One moment Len was chained up in the same basement he’d been in for the last month, a blur of yellow lightning showed up, and the next thing he knew he was outside being looked over by Caitlin Snow. He tried to turn his head towards the house as Caitlin tried to examine him, but was only able to glimpse Mick from the corner of his eyes before Caitlin was directing his head back to her, shining a light in his eyes and talking to Joe West, who was standing guard.

“I don’t have a concussion, where’s Cisco?”

He tried to focus his eyes, unused to the sudden night air after a month in that room. Dr. Snow seemed unusually put together for this hour of night, whereas the detective seemed to have just rolled out of bed. Given that they were working with Mick, and undoubtedly Lisa, he imagined this must have been a sudden rescue. He only hoped the sudden nature didn’t make it any less effective.

A moment later the ground began to shake, and West had his gun up and aimed at the house, as if that could stop an earthquake. Then Barry was back with Cisco’s unconscious form, which he handed to Mick before running back into the house, and Caitlin helped Len to the van as the others followed.

Lisa was definitely there too, and she and Mick sat on either side of Len and Cisco, whose nose was bleeding sluggishly even in his unconscious state.

West was driving as Caitlin was in the back, looking over Cisco and trying to remain clinical, but Len could see her shaking. “When he wakes up I’ll have him answer some questions, but is there anything you can tell me about any injuries he might have?”

Len vaguely remembered her asking about his own injuries earlier, but his ears had just now stopped ringing long enough to hear words.

“He can’t talk. Tried to kill himself before Wells took me, damaged his throat badly. Other than that, I’ll have to ask him what he wants you to know. He shouldn’t have any life-threatening injuries, though I have no idea what caused his nose to start bleeding.

For her part Caitlin’s only reaction was a tightening of her hand, and she nodded, examining Cisco’s neck.

Cisco stirred in his sleep, and before Len realized it he was smoothing back the hair from Cisco’s head, lulling him back into sleep.

He knew the others were probably staring, but he couldn’t stop. Cisco’s head rested against his shoulder, and he couldn’t let Cisco out of his arms. The number of times he’d been forced to hand Cisco back to that monster, nothing was going to take Cisco from his arms right now.

A blur of lightning had Len tightening his arms around Cisco, but it was just Barry entering the vehicle. Apparently West was used to this, as his driving didn’t swerve at all.

Barry stepped forward, checking Cisco’s pulse regardless of Caitlin’s presence, making sure for himself that Cisco was safe.

“I’m gonna need one of you to sit up here, it’s getting crowded in the back,” called out West.

Lisa glanced Len, then moved to sit in the front seat. Barry took her vacated seat as Caitlin kept examining Cisco.

“Did you get Wells?”

Barry shook his head. “He was nowhere to be found.”

When they got to the labs, Barry helped Len inside despite Len insisting he could walk. Despite that, as soon as Cisco was in the medbay, Barry was back for Len, lifting him up and depositing him on a cot next to Cisco’s. Caitlin was there in a moment, setting up a monitor for Cisco’s vitals and moving on to Len.

“I’m fine, really,” he tried, only for Caitlin to glare at him.

“Your wrists alone are badly chafed, and don’t get me started on that arm. It’s clearly healing from a break. I’ll work on those and you can tell me what else he did to you.”

Len sighed, allowing Caitlin to look at his wrists and arm. “He didn’t do much. I was just there for him to use against Cisco. Even the break was so Cisco would work on some piece of tech for him.”

Caitlin looked up sharply. “Tech? What type?”

Len frowned. “I couldn’t see. Wells wasn’t exactly about to explain, and Cisco wasn’t exactly in a position to talk. It was a glowing cylinder, but that’s all I could tell you. Maybe Cisco could write it out for you?”

“And what about the dizziness and hearing loss?”

He looked down. “Probably just hunger.”

“How long has it been since you’ve eaten??”

“What day is it?”

Caitlin stared. “Did he not feed you at all?”

“Not the first time I’ve been starved doc.”

She stood up immediately, grabbing materials from a cabinet. “I’m setting you up with an IV to get you some of the nutrients you need, and in the morning I’ll add some food to Barry’s usual order. I’ll also see if we have any surgery jello, though Cisco might have cleared some of it out.”

Len nodded, allowing Caitlin to get the IV running as he glanced across at Cisco.

“Do you know…” He glanced back at Caitlin, who was still trying to find the right words. “I just found out about all of this tonight. Do you know why he did it?”

“He’s a deranged, obsessed Alpha. I can’t say for sure why he was doing any of this. But I know Cisco is his object of obsession, and I know he’s not safe yet. Wells will try to get him back.”

“We won’t let that happen.” But she didn’t look as certain as her tone.

He spent the night in the medical room on a cot next to Cisco, but when Len woke up the next morning Cisco was still unconscious. The monitors said he was fine, but Len refused to move from his side.

Barry was in a few minutes later, handing Len a breakfast sandwich. “…I’m sorry.”

Len looked up sharply. “For what? You got us out.”

“I didn’t know what to think. If I’d believed you earlier… maybe I could have gotten you out sooner.”

Len scoffed. “I’m a criminal Barry, it’s common sense not to trust me.”

“Still… I don’t know what went on there. I don’t know what he did to you. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize that he’d been lying. And thank you, for trying to save Cisco.” Len nodded, not sure what to say. “If you want to go home, I can keep an eye on him now,”

“I’m not going home till he wakes up. I need to make sure he’s alright, and Wells isn’t likely to accept his loss.”

“What? Cisco’s here, Wells wouldn’t risk anything. Cisco’s safe now.”

“You didn’t see the look in his eyes, Wells is obsessed with Cisco, thinks he’s his Omega. He won’t stop until he has Cisco again, or one of them is dead.”

“But that’s not logical-”

“You think any of what he did was logical Barry? He’s acting on deranged instinct. He’s a full on Split. You only ever saw his Beta side, but around us he let his Alpha side take over. He forced Cisco into trying to kill himself. He’s obsessed, and he won’t stop.”

Barry was silent.

“It’s not impossible. But we can’t let our guard down. I’ll have Lisa bring me my cold gun so we’ll be prepared, and we can take turns keeping watch. I’m not letting him have a chance at getting to Cisco again.”

Lisa brought the cold gun, standing guard over Cisco as he slept so Len could get some more rest, but eventually she had to leave and Len took up watching over Cisco once again.

Mick came by, and Caitlin was in and out regularly. Barry would be in and out, giving Len updates on how the search for Wells was going. So far, nothing. He’d disappeared without a trace. The earthquake seemed to have been caused by Cisco’s powers (Cisco had powers?) waking up, and Caitlin theorized that these same powers are the reason Cisco hadn’t woken up yet.

Len sighed as he sat in the chair next to Cisco’s cot, reaching out and running his thumb over the knuckles of Cisco’s hand.

“We got out. I told you we would. Caitlin says your throat’s recovering well, so you should be able to talk my ear off soon enough.” Len chuckled briefly. “Probably tell me off for being an overbearing Alpha.” He took a moment to collect his thoughts, which had been escaping him recently. “Cisco… please wake up. It’s been a week since we got out. Please, come back to us?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! Things are gonna look up for these guys! Also, I have no beta, and so if anything's wrong please let me know and I'll address it!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for some payback

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I'm sorry it took so long for me to get this written! I hope you enjoy!

Len wasn’t sure how many tests the good doctor Caitlin had run, but as she finally cleared him to leave over a week after being rescued, he found he couldn’t leave. Not yet. Not when Cisco hadn’t even woken up yet.

He sat down heavily in a chair by Cisco’s cot, reminding himself of the same things that had been on his mind since they got out.

They got out. Cisco was alive. _He_ was alive. Thawne might still be out there, but they’d stop him. Somehow.

He reached over, gently taking Cisco’s hand in his. The fact that he was even able to hold Cisco’s hand…

The break was healing well. Caitlin was still encouraging him to be careful, but so far there weren’t any complications. If Cisco hadn’t healed it when he did… it was doubtful the arm would have been useable again.

“You should be careful,” Barry warned from the doorway. “Just because you were kidnapped doesn’t mean all is forgiven. I haven’t forgotten that you were the first one to kidnap him.”

Len didn’t take his eyes off Cisco. “Then what am I still doing here?”

“Simple. You’re an Alpha, and somehow you’ve bonded with Cisco. That being said, if he wakes up and wants you gone,”

“I’ll walk out the door. You don’t have to convince me to respect his wishes. But I don’t think this trauma bond is the only reason you’re letting me stay.”

“It isn’t. Wells-Thawne, whatever his name is, he’s still out there. And I’m pretty sure you want revenge.”

Len’s hand remained gentle where he held Cisco’s, but he was alert, jaw clenched and ready for anything. “Well then. Where do we start?”

“That cylinder Thawne had Cisco work on? Your description matches something stolen from Mercury labs two months ago. It’s some kind of power source.” Barry had moved their conversation to the cortex, where Caitlin was waiting by the computers, and Joe stood awkwardly behind. Len was reluctant to leave Cisco’s side, but as he was still in view, Len figured he’d be safe. Probably.

“He’s not even smart enough to build his own doomsday device?” Joe asked.

“He’s not even smart enough to modify it, he needed Cisco to do that too.” Yes, Len was going to take any and every opportunity to trash talk Thawne that he could get his hands on.

“We talked to Tina McGee. This thing is powerful, strong enough to bring down the entire city if used that way.”

“And this is the first your hearing about it?”

Barry shifted uneasily. “No. We didn’t put the pieces together till we found it. Here. In the particle accelerator.”

Len shuddered, grasping his gun tighter. “He was here? Thawne was here?”

“He didn’t get to Cisco, that’s the good news-” Caitlin tried, but Len interrupted her.

“Because he didn’t try! It’s not that we succeeded in keeping him away, he made the choice not to try yet! And he just proved that our defenses don’t work against him! He’s toying with us, he’ll be back.”

“Exactly.” Barry chimed in. “He’ll be back when it’s ready. We ran the numbers, it looks like it’ll be about 36 hours before it’s fully functional. That’s when he’ll be back.”

Len groaned. “36 hours. It’s never easy is it.”

Evacuating the metas was easy. What was easier was having Cold and the Rogues pretend to break them out. No fuss, no more prisoners with no form of trial, hell, even Mardon had agreed to Len’s ‘no killing’ rule once he’d phrased it as his only way out. It wasn’t. If he hadn’t agreed, they would have rigged some kind of fake exit and found a way to track him. Still, it was nice to not have to worry about that anymore.

The problem was what to do to prepare for Thawne’s return.

“I’m guessing you knew I’d be here to stop you.” Barry stood solitary in front of Star Labs, prepared to stop Thawne as he approached.

Thawne shook his head. “Not really. You didn’t factor into my plan at all. But your presence here doesn’t make much of a difference. There’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

“Really? You’ve hurt too many people for me to just let you do what you want.”

“I know. You see me as the villain. Paint the world in black and white heroics. But if you look back, you’ll see I’ve only done what I had to do. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

“And raping Cisco? How am I supposed to believe that was something you had to do?”

“Rape? He’s my Omega. You saw that yourself clearly. All those times we worked together. You knew we were connecting.”

“It must be a shitty world you come from where consent is just a blanket statement. Or is it just that you can’t comprehend not getting your way? Either way, you’re not getting past me.”

“I’ve shown you time and time again. You can’t defeat me Barry.”

“He’s not alone.” Len stepped out from behind one of the containers, Lisa and Mick stepping in from the other side as Firestorm and the Arrow made their own entrances.

6 to 1. It was going to be close.

Thawne grinned. “Welcome back Snart. I see your arm has healed. I do hope you haven’t tried to connect with my Omega. You remember the warning I gave you, right?”

Len’s grip tightened on his gun. His weapon had been specifically designed to take down a speedster. Cisco would be fine.

“I don’t care how fast you are, you can’t fight all six of us at the same time.” Barry announced.

“Oh I can’t?” Thawne grinned. “This is going to be fun.”

And like that it began. Barry and Thawne collided, circling each other in a maelstrom of lightning. The rest of the group spread out, circling them and making sure to keep their guns trained on the pair, waiting for an opening. Mick was growing impatient, but firestorm was keeping him distracted. Not intentionally of course, just his presence was enough to occupy Mick’s mind.

As Thawne sent Barry flying, the rest of them fired, each being dodged in turn by Thawne.

Unfortunately, Mick wasn’t paying attention to the fight as much as he was Firestorm, and his gun quickly found Len’s, blasting them apart from each other in much the same way as when they’d gone up against the Flash together.

Len landed on his back, groaning as he rolled over, only for Thawne’s boot to land squarely on his chest. He reached for his cold gun, but it was underneath him. No way to get it out with Thawne’s boot on his chest. Looking around he saw Lisa helping up the Arrow, and Barry had run off to grab Firestorm. Mick was in much the same position as himself, minus psychotic speedster holding him down.

“I saw you, standing guard over my Omega. You think he belongs to you, don’t you? You’re wrong. Cisco has always been mine, and always will be. And once I take him back to my world, he’ll see how much more he could be.”

“You’re wrong,” Len grit out, despite the boot on his chest. “Cisco doesn’t belong to anyone. I’ve said it from the beginning.” And with that he flipped the cold field of the gun, rendering Thawne completely immobile. “And unluckily for you, we planned for this occurrence.”

Len shoved Thawne off of him, pulling his gun out from where it had been pressing into his back. “We knew you were obsessed, and would probably see me as your biggest threat. So we built an addition to the cold gun, rendering you completely immobile. Cold beats speed and all that.” He winced, feeling his ribs grate together. Something was probably broken in there.

Eobard tried to stand up from the ground, but stopped as the barrel of a gun pressed against his chest. He stared up at Len, smirking.

“I wondered how you’d play a part in this world. For some reason the timeline considered you significant. But here’s the thing. You’re considered significant. Cisco isn’t. I wonder why that is.”

Smug bastard. Len grit his teeth. “I guess we’ll just have to see when we get there.” And he pulled the trigger.

The Arrow was by his side in a moment, bow up, but thankfully aimed at Thawne. Once he determined that Thawne hadn’t miraculously survived a beam of ice to the heart, he lowered his bow. “That wasn’t the plan.”

Len shrugged. “Plans change.”

“Since when?” questioned Mick.

Lisa frowned at the body, before raising her gun and firing it at Thawne’s head. “What? You can never be too careful.”

Flash and Firestorm were back, frowning at the remains of the man they’d once known.

“It was kill him now or risk him getting free again later. People like that don’t stay down.”

Barry was about to object but the Arrow shook his head at him. Barry closed his mouth. Len sighed, allowing the exhaustion to overwhelm him as he sank to the ground. Barry was smiling despite the pain, and Len just stared, trying to figure out how someone could take such a beating and still be standing.

Then the intercom flared. _Guys you need to get back, Cisco’s waking up._

Len and Barry exchanged a glance, and Len nodded. Barry picked him up, running them to Star labs and dropping Len off next to the bed. Cisco’s eyes were open, confusion written on his face as he took in his surroundings. He winced as he sat up, blinking at the light as Caitlin checked his pupils. He stared around at everyone gathered in the room, not speaking.

Caitlin spoke up first. “Cisco? How are you feeling?”

He opened his mouth, only to pause, staring at his open hands, pulse beating erratically as he began to shake, the monitors blaring as his heartrate increased past safe levels.

Barry rushed forward to grab his arm. “Cisco? What’s wrong? Are you alright?”

The beeping just got worse, and Len knew he had to act fast. ” **Back up,”** he ordered, Alpha voice bleeding into his tone. Barry and Caitlin took a step back before they even realized they had, then turned to glare but by that time Len was already acting.

He muted the blaring machines, stepping forward into Cisco’s space but not touching him. “Just close your eyes, alright?”

Cisco nodded, and Len breathed out a sigh of relief as the monitors confirmed that Cisco’s pulse was indeed slowing down. “You’re going to be fine, you’re safe, just take a few deep breaths, odds are you’re overstimulated. It’s alright, just take a few deep breaths.” Len gently picked up Cisco’s hand, ignoring the flinch and bringing it to rest on his chest, exaggerating his breathing so Cisco could follow suit.

Caitlin was about to say something but Len glared at her and shook his head. “Alright, that’s good, just keep doing that, don’t worry about anything else. It’s alright if you still don’t have your voice, nobody’s expecting you to,” a glare at Barry this time, “just keep breathing. I’m right here, Barry and Caitlin are here too, and we won’t let anything happen to you.”

As Cisco finally calmed down he began to sway, almost toppling off the bed. Len caught him, leaning him back onto the cot. Cisco’s eyes fluttered open, and Len smiled gently. “There you go. I’m sure they can get you paper and pen to write on if you want. Just keep breathing. You’re safe. Everything’s going to be alright.”

He nodded to Caitlin to approach, and stepped back, grabbing Barry’s arm and dragging him out of the room. “A word, Barry? If you don’t mind.” His tone left no room for argument.

“What the hell were you thinking? He’s just woken up after being imprisoned by Thawne for over a month, and your first thought when he began to freak out is ‘oh yeah, why don’t I grab his arm? He’s not overstimulated or anything’!”

Barry winced. They were in the hallway, and he wasn’t sure it was quite as soundproofed as Len seemed to think it was. He’d fucked up, he knew that. Sudden movements, speed, being touched, all of these were triggers. He’d just been so excited to see Cisco awake that he hadn’t thought.

Len sighed. “Look. He’s your team mate. You know him better than I do. Just… _please_ be careful.”

“Did that physically hurt to say?”

“Did it physically hurt to say ‘please’? No. Does it physically hurt to watch you try to work around someone with PTSD? Yes.”

“It’s not the first time he’s had PTSD,”

Len glared. “WHY is this the first I’m hearing about this?”

At least Barry had the sense to look sheepish. “It… never came up? I’ll try to remember to be careful with his triggers. Just… what just happened…”

“Cisco waking up after Thawne was dead? I’m not sure. Perhaps the good doctor will have more information for us?”

Caitlin slipped into the hallway, as if she’d been waiting. She probably had. “Cisco’s drifted off again, but it seems to be a natural sleep. He should wake up again soon. In answer to your question, there’s not a lot of research done on the effect of forced connections. Not a lot of research can be ethically done, given the nature. But it’s possible that the number of forced connections meant he was able to sense that Thawne was dead, and know it was safe to wake up? We’re still not sure.”

“Alright. I’ll be expecting more details from both of you, there’s something you’re not telling me. But for right now, we’ve got a dead speedster to dispose of. Anyone got a shovel?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this! I hope you enjoyed it!   
> Oh, and I started a Tumblr for my fanfiction thoughts, (though I don't really know what I'm doing) so if you wanna check it out, it's under the same username, graymuse42!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recovery isn't linear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but it doesn't really fit with the next chapter, so I kept it separate.

Cisco didn’t remember waking up. There was more a gradual awareness of comfort around him.

Except.

He tried to move his hand, feeling it wrapped up and contained. His breathing quickened and he curled in on himself, tugging his wrist and finding it unable to move, which just made everything else so much worse. He couldn’t breathe now, hands clenching uselessly on the sheets as his fear took over. It couldn’t have all been a dream. It _couldn’t._ He couldn’t take much more of this hell.

“Cisco? Hey, it’s alright, just breathe, you’re safe.”

Len? What was happening here?

“Just open your eyes. You’re safe, I promise. We’re at Star Labs.”

Cisco slowly opened his eyes, staring around at the room they were in.

They were out. It had been real. They were free.

Len was sitting next to him, not quite touching his hand, but right there. Cisco reached his hand out, (covered in a connection substitution cloth, that’s what he’d felt) and grabbed Len’s hand.

This was real.

Len was here, they both survived, it was all going to be okay.

Before he knew what was happening, tears had begun to well up in his eyes.

“Hey, hey it’s alright, no need to cry, everything’s going to be alright,”

Cisco tried to sit up only for his head to start spinning, hands too weak to catch himself from falling.

Len lunged forward, catching Cisco before he could slip off the side of the cot. “Cisco, it’s going to be okay.” Cisco tried to tug against the cloth velcroed around his wrist. “Hey, no, Cisco, that’s to stop you from deteriorating any further. You need to connect, but until you do those have to stay on.” Cisco managed to get the Velcro undone before Len placed his hand over Cisco’s own, stilling his movements. “Cisco. Please stop. I can get Caitlin or Barry in here so they can connect with you, but it’s been several months since your last healthy connection, and you were barely hanging on then.”

Cisco shook his head, moving his hand out from under Len’s and holding it out to Len palm up.

Len pulled back sharply. “Cisco, did you hit your head? I’m an Alpha.”

Cisco shook his head impatiently, grabbing Len’s hand and bringing it to his neck, trying to communicate his question without a voice.

Len stared at him in shock. “Cisco, are you-” Cisco nodded emphatically. “You’re sure?? Are you asking me to connect with you??” Cisco nodded again, impatiently tugging Len closer and trying to wrap him in a tight hug. Len allowed himself to be pulled, gently placing his hands on Cisco’s shoulders.

The touch of the Alpha was unlike the connection he’d held with Lisa. With Lisa his connection had been a gentle warmth, like a fluffy blanket covering his shoulders. With Thawne the connection had been scalding. It had burned his mind, and he had hated it. But connecting with Len, it was a flood of warmth and strength, and care. Cisco started breaking down, hugging Len tighter, searching for more strength in that connection. Len wrapped his arms around Cisco, holding the Omega and transferring as much of his strength as he could.

Len started rubbing his hand up and down Cisco’s back, feeding as much care as he could into the connection. He tentatively reached out a thought through the connection, checking on the health of the Omega. He didn’t like what he felt. While the Omega seemed to be calming down, everything inside was still broken. He needed strength.

To Len’s dismay, Cisco was receding further into himself, emotions directed inwards. Hatred and disgust swirled in his mind and-was that loathing? Len remembered enough of what his father had done to him to recognize self-loathing radiating off of the Omega’s emotions. Cisco had stopped clinging to Len, instead clinging to himself, arms wrapped tightly around his chest, tiny sobs sometimes escaping him.

Len sighed, tightening his grip on Cisco. “Hey, it’s fine. You’re going to be alright. What he did to you was terrible, but that’s not you. He doesn’t define you. You’re going to be alright. It doesn’t seem like it right now, but everything’s going to get better, I promise.”

And when he felt Cisco searching his mind through the connection, he made sure he was thinking the same things. Cisco would get better. He had to. This wasn’t allowed to be the end.

He couldn’t sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he was back there. Keeping his eyes open he could convince himself he was safe. He could either escape the exhaustion or escape the fear.

He’d spent too long afraid. He could do without sleep. Cisco got out of bed, careful not to disturb Len, who had fallen asleep in his chair.

Clinging to the wall, he made it to the cortex and sat down in his chair.

Everything was so different.

It wasn’t just the early hour of the morning, with dimmed lights and gentle shadows. It was the entire building. Thawne had built this building. It was here because of him. Cisco could feel his shadow in everything, like the entire building was Thawne’s clawed hand, reaching out to ensnare Cisco whole.

…Maybe sleep would be the best thing.

“Cisco? Are you alright?” Len was standing in the doorway, and Cisco turned, opening his mouth, trying to explain but… he couldn’t. He couldn’t say anything. 

He knew he should be able to speak. Len had explained it to him, his throat was technically fully healed. But what would he say? _It was my fault!_ He wanted to scream. _Thawne took you because I told you about him!_ But every time he tried to say it the words began to catch in his throat, cruel phantoms wrapping themselves around him, forcing his jaw shut and suffocating him.

“Hey, it’s alright, you’ll get your voice back eventually, don’t try to rush it.”

Cisco knew he was witnessing a side to Len that very few others got to see. His compassion. And it was only there because Cisco had gotten him kidnapped to begin with.

Cisco let himself be led back to bed, Len gently bringing the blankets up over his shoulder. “Rest. You’ll be back to yourself soon enough.”

Even if he could have talked, he wouldn’t have corrected him. There was no going back for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Don't worry, things will start to get better!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This was the first fic I started writing, so it's been hard to edit it. But I hope you all enjoy it!


End file.
